"Reunion in Vienna." By R. E. Sherwood. Lyric Theatre. IF
Congreve had been a contemporary of Anthony Hope, and had collaborated with him in a study of banished Viennese aristocracy, returning from suburban villas of exile to celebrate a Royalist anniversary, the result might have been something like Reunion in Vienna. Sentimental, extravagant, and partially frivolous in conception, it is a play written with conspicuous skill, always with a delightful wit, and at times with profundity. The plot is of an assortment of Viennese aristocrats, tarnished by a decade of dispossession and em- barrassment, who return to Vienna for a day. One of them is the Archduke Rudolph, who has been earning a living as a taxi-driver in Nice. Ten years ago he had for mistress a woman who is now Elena Krug, the wife of a successful psy- chiatrist. Dr. Krug, who has seen Elena's memory of Rudolph stalk his house, knows that the best way to lay that spectre is for Elena to meet him once more in the flesh. He persuades her to do so. Elena's presence completes the reunion in the Hotel Lucher, and the conduct of the still charming and still outrageous Rudolph provides the proof of Dr. Krug's pre- diction. The play was well served by the actors. On an ordinary occasion Mr. Cecil Parker, who played Dr. Krug, or Miss Bertha Belmore's fine performance as the owner of the Hotel Lucher (or Mr. Oscar Werndorff's excellent scenery) would have had first claim on our memory and our gratitude. Here Rudolph and Elena are played by Mr. Alfred Lunt and Miss Lynn Fontanne. Of them much might be said, of which only one thing is essential : that anyone who fails to see them will miss the best acting to be seen in London.
DEREK VERSCHOYLE.
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